Lea Ceramiche will be launching its new partnership with French designer Patrick Norguet during the International Furniture Fair at Milan.

He has designed a new collection that explores a new way of seeing surfaces and exalts their sense of touch. By using the latest generation of Slimtech slabs, laminated stoneware that is just 3mm thick, the result of a revolutionary technology for the lamination and compacting of porcelain stoneware, Norguet introduces his take on surfaces, creating horizontal and vertical patterns and new potential for architecture. They create three dimensional patterns of lines that almost look like they come from nature in “Line”, a virtual landscape that links the ground with the horizon. With “Naïve”, he stresses the idea of the warp and weft of fabrics and with “Pixel” the repetition of dotted elements lends the surface wavelike motion and depth at the same time. Dots, signs and lines, repeated infinitely on the 300x100cm large slabs, create a surprising effect of new colours and tones that recall the idea of a natural landscape through the use of technology.

For Milan Design Week, the Lea Ceramiche showroom at 3, via Durini 2010 will have a new display created by Diego Grandi, the company’s art director and the man behind the architectural design of the new space, in collaboration with Patrick Norguet himself. After “Scenario 01 _ On the Rocks”, where the company first put its wares on show for the people of Milan, a new installation has evolved from a concept by Diego Grandi focusing on the creation of a place for modern flaneurs to stop by, a new “Literary Café”, an unexpected place waiting to be discovered. In the enclosed courtyard, the key elements of the installation will be the iconic figures of two “huts” housing the “bookshop” and the “café”. Small ethereal buildings defining two enclosed spaces but blending in with the rest of the garden. Fritz Hansen chairs and Louis Poulsen lamps adapted for use out of doors give the space its focus and recreate an unusual domestic environment.